"I don't want to get involved too much with what everybody else says about us, about me,'' he said. "It's nothing I haven't heard before in my career. It's nothing. ... I'm here to play basketball and do whatever it takes for our team to win. So what a coach and players say to me and about me, I don't really care. ... It's kind of the same [as when] I heard people say I was overrated. It's kind of like the same response.''

“When you play this team you have to have a lot of mental, physical and emotional toughness,” he said. “Things aren’t going to go your way. That’s the way it is. You’re not going to get calls. That’s reality. We still have to find a way to get it done and we can.”

For what it's worth, James has not received a warning or fine this season under the NBA's new anti-flopping policy, which aims to curb the most egregious simulations and over-exaggerations. This season, he attempted 535 free throws, sixth-most in the NBA, trailing only James Harden, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and Russell Westbrook.